LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has decided to revoke legal permission to keep wildcats as pets across the province after a minor boy lost his arm in a lion attack last week.
In a statement on Monday, Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said the chief minister took notice of the attack on eight-year-old Wajid at a farmhouse in Lahore’s Sabzazar area. The incident was the second of its kind in the city within a span of two days.
Aurangzeb said the chief minister ordered strict action against the farm owners for attempting to conceal the incident and for providing incomplete information to hospital authorities. She added that Maryam Nawaz expressed deep sympathy with the injured child and his parents and directed that the boy be provided complete and best possible medical care.
According to the senior minister, the suspects have been arrested and a first information report has been registered against them for deliberately concealing the incident and for the amputation of the child’s arm. She said the farmhouse owner also allegedly forced the child’s parents to narrate a false version of events.
In the wake of the incident, the Punjab government has decided to remove the clause allowing the keeping of wildcats from the Punjab Wildlife Act.
Police said the child had gone near the lions’ cage while playing at the farmhouse and that the attack occurred due to an unsafe enclosure and negligence on the part of the owners. The injured boy was shifted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
A hospital spokesperson said the boy was critically injured in the attack and his arm had to be amputated. The spokesperson added that the child’s condition has since improved and he is now out of danger.
The incident followed a similar case reported on Thursday, when an eight-year-old girl was injured after being attacked by a pet lioness in Lahore’s Bhekewal Pind area. The animal’s owners were later arrested and the lioness was recovered. The girl sustained injuries to her leg and ear and was shifted to hospital for treatment.
